Researchers from multiple institutions around the world are collaborating in a race against time to isolate antibodies that could be used to treat the most severely ill from H1N1 and other potential pandemic viruses.

The ICAV Team, many of which have access to ORION, CANARIE and other global advanced research and education networks, is producing truly human monoclonal antibodies (tHuMAbs) from patients who have recovered from H1N1 infection using recombinant protein expression platforms. "This is the modern equivalent of using the serum from recovered patients that was successfully used in 1918 and more recently to treat the H5N1 avian flu," said ICAV CEO, Dr. Jeremy Carver.

The International Consortium on Anti-Virals (ICAV), a not-for-profit drug discovery and development company based at Peterborough's Trent University in the new DNA Building, includes a vast network of 250 researchers from 25 countries.

ICAV was founded after the 2004 SARS crisis by Canadian researchers Dr. Jeremy Carver and Dr. Michel Chrétien building on their experience from The Protein Engineering Network of Centres of Excellence (PENCE). They have assembled a team of experienced drug development professionals to implement the mission of ICAV.

Dr. Carver believes that collaboration and sharing of research information and other resources, over a broad networked community of researchers, is critical to the global effort. Having access to ORION "was an important criterion," he said when considering the location of ICAV at Trent University, an ORION member.

While relatively unknown to most Canadians, ICAV is playing a key role in the international effort at combating neglected and emerging viral threats such as H1N1.

The ICAV approach of relying on an international consortium of collaborating researchers coming together from multiple disciplines is increasingly becoming the norm in large-scale scientific research projects, and requires dedicated advanced collaborative technologies to support interactive, real-time sharing and exchange and mining of information and research data.

The results are shared with ICAV researchers around the world through the ICAV series of international symposia, contributing to a vast, global accumulation of new and critically important research data.

ICAV, in a virtual race against time, is currently focused on developing an urgent response to the H1N1 pandemic. Part of the research involves working with samples of recovering H1N1 patients, collected by Dr. Vanessa Allen of the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion (OAHPP) and reagents supplied by the US Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

Specimens are processed and then shipped to Dr. John Schrader at the University of British Columbia who conducts the monoclonal antibody research using key reagents supplied by Dr. James Rini at the University of Toronto. Outcomes of the urgent global collaboration will be presented at ICAV's 8th International Symposium to be held in early October, says Dr. Carver.

ICAV is also looking at ways to make full use of its connection to ORION, CANARIE and the global grid of advanced research networks to deploy research support applications and technologies to facilitate greater and more effective collaborations among consortium members.

Director of Corporate Strategy, Denis Ferkany says the consortium is exploring adopting ORION's new O3 Collaboration professional networking platform to support its global network of researchers.

ICAV itself is an institutional innovation, structured as a not-for-profit drug development and discovery company - dedicated to the discovery and development of anti-viral therapies for neglected and emerging diseases.

The company aims to fill the gap between academic research and clinical development and accelerate development of drugs for neglected and emerging viral diseases, while ensuring global access to novel therapies.

Ontario's Ministry of Research and Innovation last year provided $2 million in funding to support ICAV's ongoing work. At the time, the consortium represented just over 200 scientists from 21 countries. The network has since grown to well over 250 researchers in some 25 countries. The initial funding to launch ICAV was provided by the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Readers can download the ICAV poster here. Learn more at www.icav-citav.ca.